Anti-Regime Activities Inside North Korea Revealed for the First Time

'Young People's League for Freedom' posted a declaration, and made a video clip

The Daily NK Special Report Team |
2005-01-26 19:07

[imText1]Scenes of anti-regime activities inside North Korea have been captured for the first time.

On January 13, The DailyNK Special Report Team was able to obtain an exclusive video clip (35min) that contains scenes of anti-regime activities from the Citizen's Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees.

The video clip includes scenes of the Young People's League for Freedom posting anti-regime declarations in 1.17 Factory of Hoiryeong and to the entrance of Daeduk-ri town of North Hamkyung province and reading out a statement that contains messages urging for uprise against Kim Jong Il regime, and pleading the international society for the support for North Korean democratization.

There were occasions where unverified anti-(Kim Jong Il) regime groups active in China gave statements, but this is the first time anti-regime activities were visually verified through video.

Declares "Defeat Kim Jong Il, Dear People, Let's Fight"

In the declaration, Young People's League for Freedom posted on the 1.17 Factory of Hoiryeong said, "Defeat Kim Jong Il. Let everyone stand up to throw out the dictator regime." Following is the declaration posted under the bridge on the way to go to Daeduk middle school which says, "Arrest Chang Sung Taek, Kim Jong Il commanded it / till when will you stay starved and unclothed and die / Where are you dragging us to? / Dear people, let's fight to regain free democracy." The scene shows the second declaration where it clearly says the 'Young People's League for Freedom.' These declarations are handwritten in red.

In addition, the video clip shows a declaration written on a portrait of Kim Jong Il, which is read out in the name of 'Young People's Legue for Freedom.' The voice starts with saying, "We urge the people across the following," and reads out the declaration which says, "Who are you, Kim Jong Il? You are a dictator. The people will not forgive you and will throw you out of the regime. We demand freedom and democracy. Reformation and Liberalization is the only way to life. - Young People's League for Freedom."

The statement read by the voice which seems to be of a man from Hamkyung province in his thirties says, "Today in our country, people barely extend their lives through the severe food shortage and poverty due to the Sungun(military first)-politics by Kim Jong Il, which is a fascist dictatorship and carries out totalitarian politics. Kim Jong Il is talking as if the reason why we cannot eat and cannot live well is due to the American isolationist policy and its new war plan for the Korean peninsula, which is leading the nation to increase its defense mechanism, but this is not true."

The voice further states, "Every local area, cities, districts, provinces- how many honorary sites, laboratories, statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il have we seen and how many will there be that we have not seen? In the end, such idolization made us fools to dig our own graves." The voice continued asserting. "Kim Jong Il thinks reformation and liberalization will make the people richer while they will kill him whereas the people know the dictatorship will make Kim Jong Il rich and people will starve to death. Kim Jong Il must either revise the law for reformation and liberalization in order to satisfy the people's need and hope or resign from the regime."

In conclusion, the voice read, "The fight will be fought in various ways including both violent and non-violent ways. Refusing to work at a factory that does not provide neither food nor any compensation is justifiable." The statement ended urging for support. "We hope the U.S. and other countries send us support and empathy without hesitation for our 'Young People's League for Freedom' that will expand the fight to end the Kim Jong Il dictator regime throughout the world."

Kim Sung Hee from Hoiryeong Says, "It is certain the location is at 1.17 Factory in Hoiryeong"

Kim Sun Hee (Pseudo name, defected in 2000), who has worked at 1.17 Factory (a craft paper producing factory) for many years starting in the early 1990s, verified to us after watching the video clip that "the location where the Young People's League for Freedom posted the declaration is 1.17 Factory in district of Kang of Hoiryeong."

Kim also testified that "1.17 Factory stopped production in 1997 when raw materials from Russia ceased to come in and started to produce handicrafts for the purpose of earning foreign currency starting in the middle of 1999."

Kim further testified "The vacant lot shown in the beginning of the clip about 100m before you reach the entrance of Hoiryeong station (direction coming Chungjin) is the surroundings of the small market of Yeokjun-dong. The next footage shown is the camera moving from inside the 1.17 Factory to Soobuk-dong of Keumseng district to Changyeo district."

Another defector from Hoiryeong, Kim Hyang Mi (20 years old, Pseudo name) said, "The accent and intonation of the person who read out the declaration seems to be from the Hoiryeong region. Especially putting strong accents on the first syllable of each word is the particular way of speaking in Hoiryeong region."

Kim continued, saying, "Where they posted anti-Kim Jong Il declaration looks like the bridge located at the entrance of a town in Daeduk district and the school, the last footage of the clip is Daeduk middle school, and it is very familiar to me because I passed it every time I had to participate in the Young People Red Guard Meeting."

A North Korean defector from Pyongyang said, "educated expressions such as 'We do not trust the labor party due to the unchanging policy that is bureaucratic and subjective actions with reformation…' indicates that it is very likely that people from the elite group were involved in writing the declarations."

Lee Ji Soo, a professor of North Korean studies at Myongji University said, "there have been plenty of rumors that there are anti-regime activities going around inside North Korea, but there has not been any evidence to prove it. The real evidence of such activities holds great significance which makes me very curious of how things will unfold inside North Korea in the future."

Anti-regime groups are estimated to number 10-30

Currently, it is estimated about ten anti-regime groups are active around the Sino-Korean border including Hamkyung province, Yangkang province, and Jagang Province including the Young People's League for Freedom shown on the video clip, which numbers up to thirty including all the small groups around the area. Anti-regime groups started to emerge in 1994 after the death of Kim Il Sung. The presumption is that victims of decades of dictatorship reside are concentrated in the areas of Hamkyung province, Yangkang province, and Jagang Province.

The video clip is known to be obtained personally by Do Hee Yoon, Secretary General of the Citizen's Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees from China in December, 2004 and was shown to The DailyNK. Mr. Do said, "Some of the anti-regime activities were consistently apparent but it seems as though they created the video clip in an effort to assure others of their activities for the purpose of gaining support and building a network with the outside."

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